Israeli Man Indicted for Stabbing One-Year-Old Eritrean Girl

An African migrant boy holds a sign near Tel Aviv's Levinsky park on the third day of protestsReuters

An Israeli man has been charged of attempted murder for stabbing a one-year-old Eritrean girl near the entrance to the central bus station in south Tel Aviv.

Mordechai Michael Zaretsky, 59, attempted to kill the baby with a pair of scissors on 3 January.

The toddler was in her mother's arms when Zaretsky approached and stabbed the child twice in the face.

She was rushed to the Dana-Dwek Children's hospital in serious condition.

Zaretsky, who suffered from mental illness and was already convicted of violent crimes, admitted targeting the "black baby" because she was a "black terrorist".

"I hate them, they're black and they make a big mess," he said.

He told investigators that he hoped he succeeded "I didn't attempt to, I'm sure I killed her [...] is the w**re dead?" Zaretsky said.

He remains in jail pending the legal probe against him.

Israel regards its 50,000 Sudanese and Eritrean migrants as illegal job-seekers. Data published by the Population, Immigration and Border Authority showed that only four applicants have been granted refugee status in Israel in 2013 out of 2,593 applicants.